Earlier this year, Shandong Heavy Industry Group, best known for its bulldozers, took a 75% stake in luxury Italian yacht maker Ferretti, which also makes Riva and Pershing yachts.

It plans to open an assembly plant in Qingdao, a major port in northern China and the site of the 2008 Olympic sailing regatta, to customize yachts for China's market.

Swift says that European brands like Azimut and Sunseeker have "made a killing" in China as the country's elite discovers the pleasures of messing about on boats.

But he warned that yachting's long-term development may be limited by steep taxes, onerous regulation and a lack of marinas.

For Wong and his Accelera yachts, the next step is to build a larger shipyard, with state-of-the-art facilities, that would allow for up to 15 yachts to be made a year.

Currently, electronics and other finishing touches are installed in Hong Kong, which means the yachts incur customs duties for Chinese buyers.

But with China's economy experiencing its slowest growth in more than a decade, Wong is concentrating on promoting his brand:

"The biggest difficulty, we think, is to convince customers to spend their money on yachts that have been manufactured in China."